Three authors, three characters and one big road trip.
Vicks is the wild child, but behind that exterior she is secretly worried about her boyfriend who hasn’t texted her since he left for college.
Mel is the newcomer and is desperate to be liked and accepted by everyone.
Jesse, righteous and uptight, but will do anything to hide a life-altering secret.
These three different girls have one thing in common; they are all desperate to escape their dreary, boring town. So they climb into Jesse’s mum’s station wagon and head south and into the unexpected.
I loved E. Lockhart’s novel We Were Liars and this was the main reason I picked up this book, however I was also eager to discover the writing style of the two authors who I had previously not heard of. The plot of this novel was enjoyable and simplistic; it was extremely easy to follow, engaging me from the beginning to the very end. Its writing style is authentic and fresh right from the opening page and captures the essence of growing up, teenagers and summer perfectly. The narrative was clear and precise; overall it is very entertaining and fast paced.
My favourite part of the novel was the alternating points of view, with each author taking a character and developing their personalities, this was the strongest part of the book. This added to the authenticity of the novel and made them even more three dimensional. Each of their voices shone through as we saw multiple sides to each of the characters, from their dark secrets to their opinions, habits and quirks. Each character had a clear, distinctive voice that was executed well throughout the novel. Despite this I often felt like I couldn’t relate to the characters. Rather than empathising with them I felt distant from the protagonists. This made the novel sometimes slow and occasionally the characters felt too cliché and stereotypical. However by the end of the novel, I felt more attached to the characters and this made them seem more realistic.
Overall this is a light hearted and easy to read novel, perfect for summer and it will make you want to go on a road trip yourself and have your own adventure.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
